Update to my last, unresolved post. TLDR I need to know what hardware piece is causing this so I can fix it.
Original Ender 3, Capricorn tube upgrade and metal extruder assembly (brand new, the plastic one having cracked). I've attempted to print numerous things since fixing a huge clog and the extruder, and all of them produce these very visible, tactile lines after a certain point in the z-axis. A few normal lines seem to be skipped around the weird ones, leading me to believe it's failing to move the z-axis up for a few layers. I also think this weird offset is caused by the same issue - this is the highest piece I've tried thus far and it seems like it won't go higher than this (I'm not even halfway up the printer's print area, so it's not that). Any help/advice/things to try or check is appreciated.